Vangelis - Albedo 0.39 a look at the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou Review This album, the second major project to emerge from the Nemo laboratory, presents Vangelis in scientific mood. It contains a varied selection of high-energy tracks, probably the reason why the two big tunes, ï¿½Pulstarï¿½ and ï¿½Alphaï¿½, almost invariably appear on Vangelis compilation albums. They also must have caught the ear of Carl Sagan, who later used these plus tracks from other albums for his Cosmos TV-series. Like its predecessor ï¿½Heaven and Hellï¿½ this album was followed by a concert in 1977, this time in the Royal Festival Hall. The very striking opening track ï¿½Pulstarï¿½ with its elaborate percussion and shrill keyboard outbursts for a long time remained in Vangelisï¿½ concert-repertoire, each time in a different arrangement.

ï¿½Freefallï¿½ (slightly Arabic mood) and ï¿½Mare Tranquillitatisï¿½ (site of the first landing on the moon) are typical of the cold but adventure-filled ï¿½Moon Base Alphaï¿½ or ï¿½Blakeï¿½s 7ï¿½ sort of atmosphere on the album. The longer tracks ï¿½Main Sequenceï¿½ and ï¿½Nucleogenesisï¿½ are both jazzy sorts of improvisations with Vangelis banging away on the drums and the latter also featuring a rather austere church-organ. In-between we find two melodic pieces, the slightly baroque ï¿½Orionï¿½ and ï¿½Alphaï¿½, which of course is an all-time great Vangelis classic, simple yet profound and very well orchestrated in its gradual build-up. A speaking clock is used imaginatively at a few places on the album and the potentially unremarkable summing up of Earth-related physical constants by engineer Keith Spencer-Allen in the closing track manages to achieve a great climax by having the harmonic resolution coincide neatly with the final constant: the Albedo number.

A fine album indeed ï¿½ the analog synths may sound a bit ancient nowadays and the depletion of the Earthï¿½s ozone layer may have shifted the Albedo value of 0.39 a bit after all these years, but the music still achieves the maximum 1.0 Krugozor In 1982 issue #10 appeared of a Soviet Union publication called ï¿½Krugozorï¿½, which drew attention to various forms of music (folk, classical) and also contained this small article about Vangelis: One Man Orchestra Two Greek performers of popular music have achieved much recognition over the past decade, and gained an "international reputation" - Demis Roussos and Vangelis Papathanassiou. It would seem they have little in common, one of them a stage singer, the other a serious composer and arranger, a real master of electronic and acoustic keyboards. Nevertheless for five years they were part of one band called "Aphrodite's Child". The band was created in 1968 by the young Greek musicians, living as immigrants in Paris in opposition to the regime of the "black colonels".

Many creations of this original ensemble, especially the songs "Rain and Tears" and "It's Five O'Clock" were very successful and still haven't been forgotten today. One of their most interesting projects, the oratorio "666", was first performed in 1972, shortly before the band disintegrated. Keyboard-player Vangelis Papathanassiou, having dismissed the band, began to write symphonic works and music for films. Only in 1975 he returned to the stage simply as Vangelis. Record-company RCA, for which the musician had signed a contract, decided that his surname Papathanassiou was very difficult and that presenters of music programmes wouldn't pronounce it correctly. Since then Vangelis has written more than half a dozen albums, among them "Albedo 0.39", "Spiral", "Beaubourg" and others, on which all instrumental parts are being played by him. Vangelis is considered one of the best keyboard-players in the world. His works, compared to those of other electronic music performers, distinguish themselves by having first of all bright melodies and very full compositions saturated with various intonations from folklore.

Secondly, the harmonious originality of his music makes Vangelis draw the attention of many arrangers. In particular, the piece "Pulstar", also in this issue (*), was included in the repertoire of the ï¿½Polja Moriaï¿½ orchestra. The last two years were especially successful regarding his musical biography. He wrote two vocal albums together with well-known singer and lyricist Jon Anderson. So after one decade, he has returned to writing simple forms of song again. And at the end of 1981 Vangelis received an honorable Grammy award for his music for the "Chariots of Fire" movie, recognized as the best film-music of the year. A. Troytsky Vangelis | Off-world: The Blade Runner Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit On March 29. 1943 Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou [in Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου, Spanish: Evángelos Odhiséas Papathanasíu] was born in Volos, Greece.

He began composing when 4 years old, and is largely a self-taught musician. He refused to take traditional piano lessons, and throughout his career did not have substantial knowledge of reading or writing musical notation. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens. (1961-1972) Early works in bands Edit In the early 1960s he formed the pop group Forminx (sometimes spelled "Formynx"), which became very popular in Greece. During the student riots in 1968 he moved to Paris and formed progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child with Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras. They had a hit single in Europe called "Rain and Tears", and are considered pivotal in the development of progressive rock and concept albums, especially because of their ground-breaking double album 666. In 1972 the group was disbanded, although Vangelis has since produced several albums and singles for Roussos as well as Roussos contributing vocals to the Blade Runner soundtrack.

(1973-1980) Beginning of solo career Edit In 1973, Vangelis began his solo work by writing scores to two films by French filmmaker Frédéric Rossif. His first official solo album was Earth, also recorded in 1973. At about the same time, he rehearsed for a couple of weeks with another prog-rock band, Yes. Although he never joined the band (they ended up hiring Patrick Moraz), he became friends with singer Jon Anderson, with whom he later worked on many occasions. After moving to London, Vangelis signed a deal with RCA Records, set up his own studio, Nemo Studios, and began recording a string of well-regarded electronic albums, such as the acclaimed Heaven and Hell (1975), Spiral (1977) and China (1979). Vangelis' Heaven and Hell was later used as the theme to the PBS television series Cosmos by Carl Sagan. He also contributed as a producer and keyboard player to the album Phos, which was perhaps the most important recording by Greek rock band Socrates Drank the Conium.

(1981-1999) Work in film and commercial success Edit In 1981 Vangelis wrote the score for Chariots of Fire. Though the electronic score might be considered, in hindsight, ill-suited to a period piece, it worked beyond anyone's expectations. The movie won a half-dozen awards, including Best Picture of the year. Vangelis himself won the Academy Award for Original Music Score. The opening theme of the film (appropriately titled "Titles" on the soundtrack) was released as a single in 1982, topping the Billboard chart for for one week after climbing steadily for over five months. Only one other instrumental track, 1985's "Miami Vice Theme," has topped that chart since. Vangelis also collaborated in 1981 and 1986 with Italian singer Milva, achieving a large success especially in Germany with the albums Ich hab'keine Angst and Geheimnisse.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Chariots of Fire, in 1983, director Peter Weir used previously released Vangelis music in his film The Year of Living Dangerously, most notably "L'enfant" from 1979's Opera Sauvage. In 1982 Vangelis began a collaboration with director Ridley Scott: Vangelis scored his Blade Runner (1982), and would later score 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). He also scored many of the undersea documentaries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. In 1992, France made him a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 1996 the British ambient dance duo Future Sound of London sampled the track 'Rachel's Song' from the Blade Runner soundtrack for use on their My Kingdom EP. During the 1980s and 1990s, he and Jon Anderson released several albums together as Jon & Vangelis.

(2000-present) Later days Edit In 2001 Vangelis released Mythodea, an orchestral rather than electronic piece that was originally written in 1993, and used by NASA as the theme for the Mars missions. In 2004 he released Alexander, a CD soundtrack of his score for Oliver Stone's movie Alexander, continuing his involvement with projects related to his homeland. JON & VANGELIS discography and reviews Review by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Special Collaborator Rock Progressivo Italiano Team `Short Stories' is the 1980 debut album that resulted from a collaboration between avant- garde keyboard player Vangelis and the lead singer of symphonic prog legends Yes, Jon Anderson. Although not even remotely as daring as the Seventies work of the Greek composer, nor as exciting as the classic Yes output from that same era, this first work still holds some moments of worthwhile music, with the two artists frequently blending together and complimenting each-other in interesting ways.

On this album, the pair occasionally succeed in grafting Anderson's quasi cosmic/hippie enlightened words and Vangelis' spontaneous keyboard flair to mostly strong melodic compositions without truly aiming as low as obnoxious and vapid popular chart/top 40 music. Some moments get a bit drippy here and there (with Anderson involved, that's probably not all that surprising!), but there's a constant airy variety on display, and both the artists bring enough inspiration. A lengthy and dramatic instrumental build from Vangelis offering reverberating fan-like beats and energetic Hammond runs brings just a touch of unease and mystery throughout opener `Curious Electric'. Jon Anderson soon pops up to offer some matter of fact stream- of-consciousness musings over jagged discordant slicings, and I'm sure ever so briefly his melody drifts to the opening of Yes' `The Revealing Science of God'? `Each and Every Day' begins as a dreamy spacey drift of synths around a protective vocal from Jon that soon grows in power. `Bird Song' is a twinkling synth rumination with a grand chorus.

The romantic `I Hear You Now' was a deserved hit single on it's release in the UK, and it's all pretty synths, a lovely melody and a sprightly Anderson vocal with swirling deep-space effects. `The Road' is an acoustic gospel piece with an unsurprisingly reflective lyric punctuated with big churning synth stabs. `Far Away in Baagad' could be a distant relative to Anderson's `Olias of Sunhillow', droning chanting harmonies and frantic vocals weaving around building synth fanfares. Sadly, from here on the second side of the album takes a sharp dip in quality. `Love Is' has a swooning overwhelming loved-up vocal from Jon over New-Age ethereal synth washes, sweet but get's a little overwrought and definitely overstays it's welcome. `One More Time' is even more sickly-sweet, a late-night jazzy electric piano ballad with a syrupy vocal. A playful, almost theatrical vocal from Jon is seriously grating throughout the quirky `Thunder' too.

Thankfully the closing track `A Play Within A Play' is much more interesting, with longer instrumental shimmering synth passages around a soothing vocal, before breaking into an up-tempo synth freak-out in the middle! If only more of the second side had been this inventive and promising! One thing instantly noticeable is how confident and freed Jon Anderson's vocals are throughout `Short Stories'. Compare his performance on this album to his by-the-numbers going through the motions on the 1978 Yes album `Tormato'. Likewise, Vangelis seems up to the challenge of reigning in his more self -indulgent tendencies, and it's nice to hear him focused and a little more subdued after his schizophrenic mid to late 70's solo works! Although hardly a progressive blowout, and despite some of the later stretches getting a little too cute, `Short Stories is still an intelligent and often tasteful adult pop release. It's gentle, but there's still moments of artistic inventiveness and quirky flourishes to keep things interesting. Three stars. (Special thanks to Sam (Archives member Meltdowner) for mentioning this one to me, glad I gave it a chance!

Review by yesstiles A wonderful, magical album that came at just the right time. Jon was leaving Yes and found a nice place to express his more laid-back musical tendencies of the time. Apart from the weak opening track, this collection of songs is a delight for fans of Anderson the vocalist and melodist. The high points are the through-composed "Each And Everyday/Bird Song" and the absolutely mesmerizing "One More Time." These two display such a mastery of advanced melodic and vocal composition I get goose bumps. Just wonderful. Turn off the lights, put on the headphones and slip into this album! Review by Frankie Flowers The Friends of Mr Cairo is a much more accessible album than Jon & Vangelis' first album "Short Stories". I like this work very much. By this, the second album of thiers, there are fewer dreamlike quailities and more simple and evocative structures. Some may find the electronic arrangements dated. I never had a problem with that, there are some lovely spacious moods in this music that some listeners don't appreciate. Perhaps you could say it is of its time, but that is what is fragile and charming about it in many ways.

I have the second edition of the ablum and it starts with "I'll Find My Way Home" which is simple, catchy and very laid back. One of my favourite Jon & Vangelis tracks follows, it's called "State of Independence". I would forgive a lot of people for appreciating the Donna Summer version of the song more. She covered it a year or so after this album's release, and her version was good, but if you get to hear this version first, and give it plenty of spins, it kind of gets under your skin. In a good way of course. It has a nice bouncy rhythm but still manages to stay on a mellow key. I like the sax in this song. It brought in some interesting textures to thier music. There are some different ideas and themes that run through the songs and I think some listeners complain it is inconsistent in that respect, but don't let that put you off, just enjoy the music. "The Mayflower" and the titile track are good pieces and quite interesting but my favourite of all on the whole album is the last song "Outside Of This (Inside Of That)". It is very much in the same spacey vein as most songs from the previous album.

A very good album for your collection. Three and a half stars. Review by Frankie Flowers An interesting album indeed, Jon&Vangelis' first effort. I definitely find it is the most progressive and complex in its arrangements compared to the other albums I have heard of theirs. "Curious Electric" opens, it's very unusual and grand as well. The futuristic electronic sounds are spectacular in places and what a finale Vangelis produces! Jon's lyrics are playful and innocent which I like. "Each And Everyday" and "Bird Song" present the more sentimental and dreamy qualities the album holds a lot of the way through. It is difficult to get these songs to stick in my head, they certainly aren't as memorable as the ones on the other albums, but very pleasurable nonetheless. The ones that do stick to me are heavenly. "I Hear You Now", might be the first to grab your attention. I think it could be their best piece ever, or at least one of the best. "The Road" and "One More Time" are really nice but the last track "A Play Within A Play" is fabulous, a track I love more every time I hear it.

"Short Stories" is worth a few listens especially if you enjoy Vangelis' music and of course if you enjoy anything Jon Anderson has done too! But most would agree that they work very well together. Three solid stars. Review by Frankie Flowers I have the original 1991 version of this album which starts with "Wisdom Chain". A decent starting song. Jon is in good voice with his high vocals. The usual interesting keyboard arrangements by the great Vangelis are there. There is something more uplifting about this, the duo's last studio album. The title piece is the second track and one of the more memorable examples. "Money" is a nice take on the music industry I think, though is one part of the album that sounds quite dated. However, from the lovely "Garden of Senses" it becomes really perfect for winding down, the moods become more romantic and ambient. The second half pretty much keeps to spacey, sometimes ethereal, relaxing sounds. "Is It Love", "Anyone Can Light a Candle", "Shine For Me" and "Geneviere" are all splendid pieces.

I believe the CD I have is a re-release because it has "Change We Must" as a bonus track, also a very nice song and quite a fine closer. I have been listening to this album a lot recenty as well as Jon & Vangelis' first two releases, this in particular is a rather pleasant and elegant piece of work. As I said, there are a number of songs that reveal their strengths and magic more from towards the second half, so in all "Page of Life" gets three and a half stars. Review by Guillermo Prog Reviewer This album is generally the less interesting for me from their discography, but anyway it is a good album. "Italian song" is a song without real lyrics, with Anderson singing in what he maybe considered to be an "italian language" without being really sung in the Italian language, with the vocals with some added echoes and very good "atmospheric" keyboards by Vangelis. "And When the Night Comes" is a simple mellow ballad not very interesting for me."Deborah" is another slow song maybe wrtitten about Anderson's daughter of the same name. "Polonaise" has some interesting Classical Music keyboards playing by Vangelis.

"He is Sailing" is a bit more "energetic" song which is different from the previous 4 songs, which are slower and quieter. "Horizon" is a 23 minutes long song, the most interesting and the best from all the songs in this album, with more contrasts in moods, but "romantic" anyway, with a very good keyboards instrumental section by Vangelis with a lot of influence from Classical Music, and a very good final section with vocals by Anderson. The general sound of this album is of echoes added to the vocals and "atmospheric" keyboards. There is the use of more programmed keyboards and drum machines, updating their sound for the mid eighties. I think that Jon and Vangelis created very good music together, even if this album is not one of their best albums in their discography. Review by Guillermo Prog Reviewer I have listened to both versions of this album, and I prefer the sound mixing of the 1998 release, which apparently was the original mixing of this album that wasn�t liked by the record label (Arista) and / or Vangelis.

I think that the mixing of the 1998 version is more clear and "atmospheric", but since both versions have a few differences in the songs which were included, I think that it is interesting to listen to both. In my opinion, the mixing released in 1991 (maybe only released in Europe) is less clear and more "dry". Anyway, the style of the music in this album is more closer to New Age than to Progressive Rock music, sometimes being very "romantic" and "Pop". But maybe this is my favourite album from them. There are also other changes in sound as Vangelis was using then more modern digital synthesisers and more programmed drum machines. Anderson worked very well in all the vocal arrangements. From the 1991 release I prefer the version of "Wisdom Chain", which in comparison to the version of the 1998 release is shorter and more "direct". The version from the 1998 release includes a long instrumental introductory part by Vangelis which at least for me doesn�t have very much in common with the other parts of the song, and sounds a bit "forced".

From the 1998 release, "Change We Must" is an excellent song (with uncredited vocals by Mary Hopkin). In conclusion: I prefer the mixing of the 1998 release, but as a whole both albums are very enjoyable. Apparently, the 1998 version which was released in the U.S. , unauthorized by Vangelis but released with the authorization of Anderson, was the reason they stopped working together. Review by Guillermo Prog Reviewer This single has two songs. One is titled "And When the Night Comes", taken from their "Private Collection" (1983) album. This song is a ballad, very Pop in style with some New Age Music arrangements, not very interesting for me. It has a sax solo by Dick Morrisey, and it seems that Vangelis used some new keyboard sounds for that album as they sound "very eighties" in sound, and maybe he also used a programmed drum machine. The other song, titled "Song Is", is now a "rarity", because it was only released in this single.

It is an "atmospherical" song with New Age Music arrangements, much better than "And When the Night comes", and in my opinion, closer to their previous albums in musical style. It is available for listening in v=VBLqwUmTIFY if someone wants to listen to this song. I don`t know why two of the best songs they recorded as a duet ("Song Is" and "Sing With Your Eyes") were only released as B sides. Maybe their record companies had the "final word" in these choices. Review by Guillermo Prog Reviewer All the songs from this EP (with one exception) were taken from their "Page of Life" album (from the first version of that album which was released by Arista Records in 1991). This EP is now considered more as a "rarity" and it is difficult to find it as it is now of print. At the time of release (1991) I didn`t know that Jon and Vangelis have released a new album titled "Page of Life", and it seems that the original version of that album was only released in Europe in 1991. This EP has two versions of "Wisdom Change".

One is a single edit (only available in this EP), and the other is the full version of the song. I prefer the full version of this song. I also could hear some differences in the mixing, but maybe I`m wrong. Anyway, the full version is better. The edit lacks a brief keyboard solo (using a "trumpet" sound) and it also has a shorter fnal part, but both versions have a very good vocals arrangement by Jon Anderson. This is a very Pop song in style with some New Age musical arrangements. "Page of Life" is a very good song, more New Age in style, and it is one of the best from the "Page of Life" album. But the "real rarity" in this EP is the song titled "Sing With Your Eyes", which I consider as one of the best songs Jon and Vangelis recorded as a duet, and maybe is my favourite song from them. It is a very good ballad, with very good arrangements and mixing, and a very good "atmospherical" instrumental section played by Vangelis. I don`t know why this song was relegated to this EP as I consider it as the best from the "Page of Life" album sessions.

It also wasn`t released in the second version of the "Page of Life" album from in 1998. If someone wants to listen to this song it is available for listenig in youtube: Review by mohaveman This was without a doubt one of my favorite albums of 1981. I was already a huge fan of Yes and enjoyed a lot of Jon Anderson's solo music such as OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW, but did not care much for the electronic sounds of Vangelis. This album, however, skillfully merged the two artists into a great record. The title song had a great hook, and the other songs were very enjoyable. It tends to sound somewhat dated now, but little of the time does not. This release is a great mix of new age and electronic synthesizer music. One of the best Jon Anderson releases.

Vangelis: Biography - Classic Cat Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (born 29 March 1943; Greek : Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου /evˈaɲɟelos oðiˈseas papaθanaˈsiu/ ), is a Greek composer of electronic jazz, progressive , ambient and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis. [2] He is best known for his Academy Award winning score for the film Chariots of Fire , and scores for the films Blade Runner and 1492: Conquest of Paradise . Vangelis began his professional musical career working with several popular bands of the 1960s such as The Forminx and Aphrodite's Child , with the latter's album 666 going on to be recognized as a psychedelic "classic". [3] In the 1970s, Vangelis formed a musical partnership with Jon Anderson , the lead singer of progressive rock band Yes , and the duo went on to release several albums together as Jon & Vangelis .

Towards the end of the 1970s, Vangelis composed music scores for several animal documentaries, including Opéra sauvage ; the success of these scores brought him into the film scoring mainstream. In 1981, he composed the score for the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire . The soundtrack's single, " Titles ", won Vangelis the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and also reached the top of the American Billboard . In a career spanning over 49 years, writing and composing more than 40 albums , Vangelis is generally regarded by music critics as one of the greatest composers of electronic music of all time. [4] [5] [6] Contents Biography Formative years Vangelis was born 29 March 1943, near Volos , Greece . Largely a self-taught musician, he purportedly began composing at the age of four. He refused to take traditional piano lessons, and throughout his career did not have substantial knowledge of reading or writing musical notation. [7] He studied painting—an art he still practices—at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens.

[8] When he was six, Vangelis' parents enrolled him at a specialist music school in Athens. Vangelis said in an interview with Life , when asked about his lack of ability to read music: "When the teachers asked me to play something, I would pretend that I was reading it and play from memory. I didn't fool them, but I didn't care." [7] Work in bands In the early 1960s he was one of the founders of pop group The Forminx (or The Formynx), which became popular in Greece. [9] Based in Athens, the five-piece band played a mixture of cover versions and their own material, the latter written mostly by Vangelis (with lyrics by DJ and record producer Nico Mastorakis) but still sung in English. The Forminx released nine hit singles and a Christmas EP before disbanding in 1966 at the peak of their success. [9] A film being made about them at the time, which was initially directed by Theo Angelopoulos, was never fully completed, and the songs, composed for the movie, were never released. Vangelis spent the next two years mostly studio-bound, writing and producing for other Greek artists.

[7] [10] Around the time of the student riots in 1968 , Vangelis founded progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child together with Demis Roussos , Loukas Sideras and Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter the UK, they found a home in Paris where they recorded their first single, a hit across much of Europe called Rain and Tears. Other singles followed, including two albums, which, in total, sold over 20 million copies. The record sales led the record company to request a third album, and Vangelis went on to conceive the double-album 666 , based on Revelation , the last book in the Bible . One of the many remarkable features of this album is Irene Papas 's guest participation (vocal on "Infinity"). Tensions between members during the recording of 666 eventually caused the split of the band in 1971, but the album was still released in 1972. Despite the split, Vangelis has since produced several albums and singles for Demis Roussos, who, in turn, contributed vocals to the Blade Runner soundtrack .

[10] [11] [12] Early solo works While still in Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis had already been involved in other projects. In 1970 he had composed the score for a film called Sex Power (Demis Roussos provided vocals). In 1971, some jam sessions with a group of musicians at Marquee Studios in London had resulted in two albums' worth of material, unofficially released without Vangelis' permission in 1978, titled Hypothesis (aka Visions of the Future), and The Dragon. Vangelis succeeded in taking legal action to have them withdrawn. A more successful project was his scoring of wildlife films made by French filmmaker Frédéric Rossif . The first was L'Apocalypse des animaux , released in 1973. In 1972, the student riots of 1968 provided the inspiration for an album titled Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit (Make Your Dream Last Longer Than the Night), comprising musical passages mixed with news snippets and protest songs ; some lyrics were based on graffiti daubed on walls during the riots.

[13] Solo career In 1973 Vangelis' solo career began in earnest. His first "official" solo album was Earth, though it did actually feature a group of musicians including ex-Aphrodite's Child guitarist Silver Koulouris and also vocalist and songwriter Robert Fitoussi (better known as F.R. David of "Words Don't Come Easy" fame). [14] This line-up, later briefly going out under the name "Odyssey", released a single in 1974 titled "Who", but that was Vangelis' last involvement with them. Later in 1974, Vangelis was widely tipped to join another prog-rock band, Yes , following the departure of Rick Wakeman . After a couple of weeks of rehearsals Vangelis decided not to join Yes and, instead, they went on to hire Swiss keyboard player Patrick Moraz , who later joined The Moody Blues . Vangelis did, however, become friends with Yes' lead vocalist Jon Anderson , and later worked with him on several occasions, including as the duo Jon & Vangelis .

[15] After moving to London, Vangelis signed with RCA Records , set up his own studio, Nemo Studios , [16] and began recording a string of electronic albums, such as Heaven and Hell (1975), Albedo 0.39 (1976), Spiral (1977), Beaubourg (1978), and China (1979). Parts of Heaven and Hell were later used as the theme to the PBS television series Cosmos by Carl Sagan . Two melodies from Albedo 0.39 , "Alpha" and "Pulstar", and also one track from L'Apocalypse des animaux , "Création du Monde", were also used in Cosmos. Another part (the song "So Long Ago, So Clear"), featured guest vocals by Jon Anderson , marking the start of the partnership. Vangelis also contributed as a producer and keyboard player to the album Phos, by the Greek rock band Socrates Drank the Conium (later known simply as Socrates).

[17] [18] In 1979, Vangelis provided the score for another animal documentary by Frédéric Rossif , Opéra sauvage . Almost as well known as L'Apocalypse des animaux , the resulting soundtrack would bring him to the attention of some of the world's top filmmakers. The music itself would be re-used in other films (most notably the track "L'Enfant" in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) by Peter Weir ) and television commercials (the track "Hymne", used in Barilla pasta commercials in Italy and Ernest & Julio Gallo wine ads in the US). [19] Film work Main article: Chariots of Fire (album) In 1981, Vangelis wrote the score for the film Chariots of Fire , set at the 1924 Summer Olympics . The choice of music was unorthodox as most period films featured traditional orchestral scores, whereas Vangelis' music was modern and synthesizer-heavy. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Vangelis won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score .

The opening theme of the film was released as a single in 1982, topping the American Billboard chart for one week after climbing steadily for five months. [20] Greek musician Stavros Logarides claimed Vangelis had copied the melody of " Titles " from one of his compositions called "City of Violets". Member of a 1970s' band called Poll, and a friend of Vangelis at the time, Logarides sued Vangelis for plagiarism in 1987. At the court hearing, Vangelis set up synthesizers in the courtroom and played for the judge to demonstrate his compositional process. [21] The judge ruled that any similarities in the melody were minor and "Titles" was a Vangelis original. [22] Other notable Vangelis soundtracks were Antarctica for the film Nankyoku Monogatari in 1983, and The Bounty in 1984. Vangelis also collaborated in 1981 and 1986 with Italian singer Milva , achieving success especially in Germany with the albums Ich hab' keine Angst and Geheimnisse (I am fearless and Secrets).

The Italian language Nana Mouskouri album also featured her singing his composition "Ti Amerò". Collaboration numbers with lyricist Mikalis Bourboulis sung by Maria Farantouri included the tracks "Odi A", "San Elektra", and "Tora Xero". [23] Blade Runner Main article: Blade Runner (soundtrack) In 1982, Vangelis collaborated with director Ridley Scott , to write the score for the science fiction film Blade Runner . [24] Capturing the isolation and melancholy of Harrison Ford 's character, Rick Deckard, the Vangelis score is as much a part of the dystopian environment as the decaying buildings and ever-present rain. [25] A disagreement led to Vangelis withholding permission for his performance of the music from Blade Runner to be released, and the studio instead hired a group of musicians dubbed "The New American Orchestra" to record the official LP released at the time. It took 12 years before the disagreement was resolved and Vangelis's own work was released in the United States, in 1994. The soundtrack was still incomplete, as the film contained some non-Vangelis tracks as well.

[23] Over the years a series of bootleg recordings of Blade Runner soundtrack from unknown sources have been released, mostly targeted to collectors as "private releases", that contain most of the music cues (including the Ladd Company logo theme). [26] A three disc box set was released in late 2007 containing the 1994 album, a second disc containing some more of the missing music cues and a third disc of new Vangelis material inspired by Blade Runner. The 2007 release still lacks some incidental music, most notably the background music from the Taffey Lewis bar scene featuring vocals by Demis Roussos . [27] 1492: Conquest of Paradise Main article: 1492: Conquest of Paradise (album) In 1992, Paramount Pictures released the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise , also directed by Ridley Scott , as a 500th anniversary commemoration of Christopher Columbus ' voyage to the New World. Vangelis's score was nominated as "Best Original Score - Motion Picture" at the 1993 Golden Globe awards , but was not nominated for an Academy Award.

[28] Other works In 1983 Vangelis wrote the music for Michael Cacoyannis ' staging of the Greek tragedy Elektra which was performed featuring Irene Papas at the open-air amphitheater at Epidavros in Greece. [29] The same year Vangelis composed his first score for a ballet by Wayne Eagling . It was originally performed by Lesley Colier and Wayne Eagling himself at an Amnesty International gala in Drury Lane , but in 1984 the Royal Ballet School presented it again at the Sadler's Wells theater. In 1985 and 1986, Vangelis wrote music for two more ballets: "Frankenstein - Modern Prometheus" and "The Beauty and the Beast". In 1992, Vangelis wrote the music for the Euripides play, Medea , that featured Irene Papas . [30] In the 90's, Vangelis scored a number of undersea documentaries for French ecologist and filmmaker, Jacques-Yves Cousteau .

[31] During 1980, six years after Vangelis decided against joining Yes , he and Jon Anderson , the lead singer of Yes, released their first album together, Short Stories, under the band name of Jon & Vangelis . They would eventually go on to release three more afterwards; The Friends of Mr. Cairo , Private Collection and Page of Life released in 1981, 1983, and 1991 respectively. [32] The Olympic Games In May 2000, Vangelis composed the music as well as designed and directed the artistic Olympic flag relay portion of the Closing Ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games . [33] The performance prompted many, including Vangelis himself, to think that he would play an influential role in the artistic development of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games . [34] The Athens Olympic Committee (ATHOC) had other plans, however, and the job was given to someone else. For the first time ever, a DJ , Tiësto , composed and mixed an entire trance music soundtrack for the Olympics.

[35] STATUS magazine author Nikos Mouratidis interviewed Vangelis in June 2002 and concluded the following: Since Vangelis is so familiar with Greek mythology, he should know that Greece is just like Saturn, who ate his children. And Greece prefers to eat Vangelis who is its child rather than all those who have little to do with Greece, tradition, culture and its dreams. [36] While no official recording of Vangelis' composition for the 2000 Sydney Games exists, the music can be heard accompanying the presentation of the emblem of the 2004 Athens Games. [37] [38] 2000s Vangelis Papathanassiou, Honorary Doctor of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Vangelis performed live and released Mythodea , a predominantly orchestral rather than electronic piece that was originally written in 1993, and used by NASA as the theme for the Mars Odyssey mission in 2001. [39] A year later, in 2002, Vangelis created the 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Anthem for the 2002 World Cup .

[40] In 2004, Vangelis released the score for Oliver Stone 's Alexander , continuing his involvement with projects related to Greece. [41] Vangelis released 2 albums in 2007; the first was a 3 CD set for the 25th Anniversary of Blade Runner, titled Blade Runner Trilogy and second was the soundtrack for the Greek movie, El Greco , titled El Greco Original Motion Picture Soundtrack . [42] [43] Personal life Little is known about Vangelis' personal life and he rarely gives official interviews to journalists . However, in a 2005 interview with The Telegraph , Vangelis talked openly about various parts of his life. He stated in the interview that he was "never interested" in the "decadent lifestyle" of his band days, choosing not to take drugs or drink alcohol . At the time of the Telegraph interview, Vangelis was involved in his third long-term relationship . When asked why he had not had children, Vangelis replied: ...Because of the amount of travelling I do and the nonsense of the music business.

I couldn't take care of a child in the way I think it should be taken care of. It is not known where Vangelis generally resides; he has stated that he "travels around", rather than settling down in one specific place or country for long periods of time. As a hobby, Vangelis enjoys painting; his first art exhibition toured South America in 2005. [4] Excerpts from other interviews mention that Vangelis has been married twice before. In a 1976 interview with Dutch music magazine Oor , the author wrote that Vangelis had a wife named Veronique Skawinska who was a photographer who had done some album art work for Vangelis. [12] [44] An interview in 1982 with Backstage music magazine suggests that Vangelis had previously married again, to a singer named Vana Verouti, [45] who had performed vocals on some of his records, performing for the first time with him on La Fête sauvage and later on Heaven and Hell .

Musical style and compositional process As a musician , Vangelis relies heavily on synthesizers [46] and other electronic approaches to music. Synthtopia, an electronic music review website , stated that Vangelis' music could be referred to as "symphonic electronica" because of his use of synthesizers in an orchestral fashion. The aforementioned review site went on to describe his music as melodic : "drawing on the melodies of folk music , especially the Greek music of his homeland." [47] Vangelis' music and compositions have also been described as "...a distinctive sound with simple, repetitive yet memorable tunes against evocative rhythms and chord progressions ." [48] He often used vibrato on his synthesizers, which was carried out in a distinctive way on his Yamaha CS80 polyphonic synthesizer; shaking his finger on the key like a stringed instrument to produce the vibrato sound. In an interview with Soundtrack, a music and film website, Vangelis talked about his compositional processes. For films, Vangelis stated that he would begin composing a score for a feature as soon as he sees a rough cut of the footage.

[49] In addition to working with synthesizers and other electronically based instruments, Vangelis also works with and is a conductor to orchestras . For example, in the Oliver Stone film Alexander , Vangelis conducted an orchestra that consisted of various classical instruments including sitars , percussion, finger cymbals , harps and duduks . [50] Vangelis uses a technique of recording all tracks simultaneously on tape, using a Zyklus MIDI Performance System. [51] The album Direct is named after the successor to the Zyklus which was being specially manufactured for him by the Zyklus MPS designers, Bill Marshall, Pete Kellock and Mike Crisp. [52] He explains his customary method of approach. As soon as the musical idea is there, as many keyboards as possible are connected to the control-desk, which in turn are directly connected to the applicable tracks of the multi-trackmachine. The idea now is to play as many keyboards as possible at the same time. That way as broad a basis as possible develops which only needs fine-tuning.

After that it's a question of adding things or leaving out things." [53] Honours and legacy France made Vangelis a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1992. [54] In 1995, Vangelis had a minor planet named after him ( 6354 Vangelis ) by the International Astronomical Union 's Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ; the name was proposed by the MPC's co-director, Gareth V. Williams , rather than by the object's original discoverer, Eugène Joseph Delporte , who died in 1955, long before the 1934 discovery could be confirmed by observations made in 1990. [55] NASA conferred their Public Service Medal to Vangelis in 2003. The award is the highest honour the space agency presents to an individual not involved with the American government . [56] Five years later, in 2008, the board of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens voted to make Vangelis an Honorary Doctor, making him Professor Emeritus at their Faculty of Primary Education.

[57] In June 2008, the American Hellenic Institute honoured Vangelis with an AHI Hellenic Heritage Achievement Award for his “exceptional artistic achievements” as a pioneer in electronic music and for his lifelong dedication to the promotion of Hellenism through the arts. [58] Discography Vangelis | Uncyclopedia | Fandom powered by Wikia edit Early Years Vangelis was born on the Greek island of Delphi in 1957. On the day of his birth, as is told in Greek legend, a goat emitted a short series of bleeping sounds. His parents (VanTransit and VanWhite) recognised this as an omen and set him up at once for a future in goat Morse telegraphy, which was the most modern form of communication at the time. Instead of sending messages from hilltop to hilltop, however, the young Vangelis simply herded the goats together and made them into a piano.

Upon realising the true nature of their fat child's destiny, his parents enrolled him in the Athens School of Aerial, Airy, Celestial, Dainty, Divine, Empyreal, Empyrean, Exquisite, Fairy, Filmy, Fine, Gaseous, Ghostly, Gossamer, Heavenly, Impalpable, Insubstantial, Intangible, Light, Rarefied, Refined, Spiritual, Sublime, Subtle, Supernal, Tenuous, Unearthly, Unsubstantial, Unworldly, Vaporous, Vapory and Vapid Soundtracks (known as ASAACDDEEEFFFGGGHIIILRRSSSSTUUUUVVVS for short) where he excelled. edit Yes Vangelis nearly became the keyboard player for the rock band " Yes " after he was approached by Jon Anderson with a request to join. Vangelis watched as Jon got closer and closer but just as they were about to meet, Jon just kind of floated away. It was beautiful, man. Jon returned however, a few years later, and convinced Vangelis that they should release an album as a duo, but the end result proved to be very unsuccessful.

After making this mistake 3 more times, Vangelis became uncharacteristicly angry and sat on Jon, who hasn't been seen since. edit Chariots of Fury Chariots of Fury. In 1981 Vangelis won an Oscar for his soundtrack to "Chariots of Fury" a British film about athletic young men all struggling together with little or nothing on in the Olympics . It is because of this score that Vangelis is now celebrated as having made the best ever piece of music to go with film of people running very slowly across a beach. Mozart , Beethoven and Bach have all had a try at it and all failed. It wasn't until Vangelis composed "Chariots of Fury" that the world got the music it deserved. The secret to his success in this field, according to Vangelis, was to actually compose his music while watching films of people running very slowly across a beach. Mozart, Beethoven and Bach were all very talented but none of them had TV , and it is more difficult than you might think to actually drag a piano onto a beach.

Vangelis was so pleased with the results that he uses exactly the same visualising techniques for all his subsequent soundtrack recordings, even if the film doesn't have a single person in it who runs across a beach very slowly. edit Blade Runner The view from inside Vangelis' bathroom In 1981, Vangelis was invited by director Ridley Scott to create the musical accompaniment to his new musical, " Blade Runner ", a hilarious comedy set inside a public library in the Los Angeles of the future. Half the librarians turn out to be bionic and the other half have to chase them. Vangelis produced an appropriately futuristic score which was well received by critics and radios. In 1986, however, he caused outrage among animal rights activists when he admitted in an interview to "Der Struming Monkey" magazine that he had killed a donkey while creating the score. The music opens with a deep booming sound, which actually is the sound of a donkey hitting the water at the bottom of a very deep well. Vangelis claimed that there was no other way to produce that precise sound. He claimed to have tried earthworms and lemurs but with little success.

He also stated that back home in his village in Greece people killed donkeys for something as small as a traffic violation, while he was creating art that would be fed to the children of future generations for decades. edit Later Years In later years, Vangelis began to turn grey from the ground up Vangelis has always been appreciated by the scientific community for the way in which he distills all the soul from music via a tube and transforms the remaining sludge into mathematics . Dr. Carl Sagan was a big fan and used Vangelis' music in his series Cosmos. In recognition of how Vangelis made Carl so happy, NASA invited him to write the music for their 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission. As far as NASA was concerned, this was a win win situation, because even if the music turned out to be rubbish, no one would hear it in space. Vangelis did not disappoint. The music was, indeed, rubbish. Dispensing with his usual bank of electronic sonics, Vangelis opted for a new instrument he'd never tried before: women . The results were a warbling disaster, and the NASA mission capsule eventually decided to end it all by crashing into the surface of the planet.

After all the scientists had gone home and stopped shouting at him, Vangelis turned his back on musical projects and now prefers to spend his days harvesting olives and rolling them down a nearby hill. Featured Article

Question: What nationality is the keyboard player Vangelis?
Answer: GREEK